This is an easy, flexible salad. I used two small heads of "Artisan" salad (a varied 4-pack) for the lettuce and used turkey bacon (I'm sure the real thing would be even better). For the dressing, I used 1/4 olive oil, 1/4 c brown sugar, 3 T rice vinegar, and the S&P. This is a great salad if you are serving people who don't care for tomatoes or cucumbers. Two of those eating this don't eat dressing and reported that the salad is excellent without the dressing. I plan to add some sliced strawberries and some blueberries to what's left for a different taste tomorrow.

Reviewed On: May 4, 2013

This is a good meatless recipe. I tweaked it quite a bit, so if you don't like tweaking, stop here! I added diced celery and grated carrot with the onion (to use leftovers). I used leftover tomato sauce instead of the tomato paste, and a can of petite diced tomatoes instead of the fresh tomato. I did add a tablespoon of sugar, as I cooked the canned tomatoes down (slow boil for about 15 mion) rather than adding ketchup. The mixture tasted a little sweet, but after adding slightly more than 1 1/2 c lentils (mine were already cooked) to the mixture, it was perfect. I served it on buttered slices of whole-grain bread. The half-recipe made enough for four servings, easily.. Calling it Sloppy Sams is perfect. I'm looking forward to leftovers, as this is probably one of those mixtures that is better once the flavors meld. And I'll really try to make it exactly like the recipe sometime to see if it's even better the recipe's way.

Reviewed On: May 1, 2013

I'm not being totally fair to this recipe, as I baked these in the oven. The bacon was delicious. My strawberries were very ripe, I think too ripe for this recipe-they were extremely sweet after baking, too sweet for the bacon. If I were to make it again I would use medium-ripe strawberries and cook the bacon to a flexible state, then stuff each strawberry with a partially cooked piece of bacon to avoid overcooking the strawberries. Then I would proceed with grilling or baking the strawberries. This was a fun project on a rainy afternoon while I baked bacon for the freezer. I used a small paring knife to make a hole completely through the strawberries, but a straw would work great if one was available.

Reviewed On: Apr. 17, 2013